Life

Life has been busy, complicated, tiring, crazy, changing and full. And for all those reasons I haven't blogged, even though my sister keeps bugging me to! So, I've decided even though I don't have any video to put up I will still post some updates. Here goes.

LIFE HAS BEEN -

Busy: We (the girls and I) have been trying to stay active and do a lot of things now that it's getting colder and it's not fun to stay inside all the time. We have story time at the library on Tuesdays, we pack a lunch and go to the indoor playground on Wednesdays and Bible study on Thursdays. Also, I've been tutoring almost every night from 8-12 keeping us all very busy with little time to just rest. It has been fun though and the girls have much better attitudes when our days are filled with activities.

Complicated: Life has been getting somewhat complicated now that Landyn is getting older and the girls are beginning to fight. It's a struggle every parent has I'm sure, wondering how to punish, what to punish, what to ignore, how to encourage sharing, how to stay patient as a parent...etc. It's left for a lot of discussions between Wayne and I, trying to figure things out. One minute the girls are at each others throats and the next minute they're best friends! We're figuring it out the best we can but we have our frustrating and complicated moments.

Tiring: Wayne and I have been doing a lot of work with school. Our first 8-week term just finished meaning we have one class down, one to go. It has kept our schedule full, spending much of what would be free time on class. This past week Wayne had a paper due which kept him up until at least 4 am every night!

Crazy: As stated in the busy category, we've been going non-stop recently. Not only at home but traveling. That has made life not only busy but crazy. In the last month we (again, just the girls and I) went home to NY twice, once for the passing of a dear friend and once for fall break as well as a short weekend trip to Richmond about a month ago with Wayne too. What makes it crazy is that I've been doing all the driving and one of the trips to NY was all by myself. I was packed with tons of candy and caffeinated drinks to keep me awake. The girls were great and the trip was really smooth but I couldn't believe I did it all by myself.

Changing: The changing has been mostly with Landyn although some with Jordyn as well. Landyn has been walking for a few weeks now, about 3-4 steps at a time although we couldn't really get her to do it for show. Then this past week she just decided she really liked walking. She's now running, doing up to 10 steps at a time and just loving it. It's so fun to see how much she enjoys walking and how much Jordyn loves to watch and cheer for her. She also loves to blow kisses, clap when we say good girl and she is always waving at people. I will have to put up some video of her dancing, which she does on request and it is very adorable. Jordyn is also changing and growing incredibly. She is learning her abc's and can identify many of the letters as well as sing the abc song. She knows how to spell her entire first name and is really quite good at it! She's also beginning to branch out. Since finding a new church and spending time at Bible study and story time she's growing more accustomed to children her own age and learning how to interact and not always be so shy. It's very encouraging for me to see her personality not so afraid to come out and play!

Full: My heart has just been full and excited about all that has been going on. Our girls are growing up, beautifully if I might add, and I am just so proud of them as they learn manners and how to obey. I have been making some new friendships and really been able to grow them. God has led us to a new church that we really enjoy and being a part of the Bible study has really allowed me to get to know some women as well as my girls to make some friends. God has really provided for us and we are both so thankful!

Horrible Mom and a Puppy

So, some weeks I feel like a horrible mom. Last week consisted of one of those days...the day I dislocated Jordyn's elbow. We were having a rough day because it was the hottest week in Lynchburg this summer and our ac decided to break. So, after getting it fixed (hopefully for a long time) we decided to meet daddy for lunch while our house cooled down. On the way up the stairs Jordyn started to fall and I grabbed her arm. She was throwing a fit before we started up the stairs because she didn't want to go so after I grabbed her she was still throwing a fit. Being hot and frustrated I grabbed her up and put her in the car, listening to her scream about her arm the whole time. The thing about Jordyn is that it's always something when she doesn't want to do what she's supposed to. She had to go potty when it's bed time, she has to drink more juice when it's time to eat, she has to sleep when it's time to get dressed etc...so I just assumed it was another one of her fits. It was more screaming than usual so I let her have an ice pack in the car. When we got to Wayne's her arm was swelling and she was complaining her hand hurt. I figured, lets have Wayne check it out. So I pulled her out of her seat, in the car seat, fed her lunch since she couldn't move her arm, put her back in the car, and took her to the doctors (upon Wayne's suggestion and the fact that every time she moved she screamed in pain.) Immediately they called us in and the doctor had her arm popped in about 10 seconds after I told him what had happened. In minutes she felt great and was running through the office. I of course, felt like the worst mom ever because I've dislocated my knee many times and say it's the worst pain ever, second only to labor. Sometimes you just breath and it hurts. So...horrible mom?

Now, we have another baby girl at home who we call our little puppy. Is that being horrible? Let me explain to you why. She pants when she's excited. When we want her to come to us we say "Come here Landyn" and we pat the floor. We put her snacks on a plate on the floor next to the table and she crawls around and eats them. One of her favorite "treats" is a biscuit that looks exactly like one a dog would eat. Jordyn rubs her head when she's a good girl. She's not allowed on our bed in the mornings (because she would fall off and we can't pay attention to her) so she has her own special pillow at the foot of the bed that she lays on and watches tv.

So, am I a horrible mom for suggesting she's our little puppy and treating her like one? Or for not being more sensitive to my baby girl when she was hurt? Probably not, but some days just feel like that. Thankfully, today isn't one of those days!

Changes

Changes are things that most of the time I like. I adjust well and am excited and happy about new things to come. Other times changes are a little bit sad or nostalgic, knowing that soon what I know will be gone. Today I'm feeling both feelings about change.

The exciting change is my brother Aaron is engaged, as I'm sure most if not all of you already know. How crazy is that. My 21 year old brother, going to be married next June, man does that feel weird. It doesn't make me feel old, probably because I'm not! but it does feel weird to know I won't be the only one in my family married. It adds change because Jordyn and Landyn now have a new Aunt. Since getting engaged we've been calling Molly, "Aunt Molly" and I think both Aaron and Molly love this change! I like it too because both of my girls love Molly and we're excited to have her be a part of our lives. She's definitely a little shy (at least in my opinion), there's still a lot I need to know about her but there's a lot we already know. When you need to grocery shop and you don't have enough room in the cart, call Molly. When you're looking for a good dessert, call Molly. If you're dishes are in the sink, dirty because you're just too tired to take care of them that day, invite Molly over. If your kids need a playmate, call Molly, but make sure I don't need her first! She's really a wonderful person and we're excited to get to know her better.

To add to that, my little girl is going to be the flower girl. Who knows how that's going to work...I'm hoping well but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Uncle Aaron and Aunt Molly brought Jordyn over a bouquet of beautiful orange flowers and asked her to be their flower girl. Of course she said yes, because she has no idea what that means, but it meant she got to hold the flowers and break the stem of almost every single one. I can't believe my daughter is going to be a flower girl!

Jordyn is also becoming a lot more vocal and that change is exciting but a little sad. I'm going to miss all the cute words she says wrong, along with her really high pitched voice. Sadly, along with that vocalness comes a lot more attitude and opinions...something else that I'm not to thrilled about. But at the same time, I'm loving it. This was her conversation with Landyn this morning. "You can come into my room Landyn, come on. I have lots of toys you can play with. I have puzzles or shoes. You can play with them." How cute is that. And of course Landyn followed her right into her room and they sat together playing to nicely!

I'm thrilled with the changes Jordyn is going through but going to miss her being my baby so I figured I better get some of her cuteness on film. Below is a video of some of Jordyn's thoughts and opinions. Hopefully you can understand!

Termites, Potty Training and Stairs

Life has been busy as you can see from the title and I feel I should update a little bit. I'm determined to keep this blog more current...

So first of all, we found out recently we had termites. The way we found out was to find a mud tube coming out of the ceiling followed by two more holes in the ceiling the next day. We ended up informing our neighbors and between the inspectors we called and the ones from neighbors we ended up having 5 inspectors into our home, most of which said the same thing. Becuase of that, we were able to end up getting a great deal and get it taken care of on Monday. Four of our neighbors also had termites found and so it was not nice for them but a nice way to meet some of our neighbors and know we weren't in the situation by ourselves.

The next big thing on the list is potty training. We've been making leaps and bounds as well as regressing all at the same time, if that's possible. Jordyn just finished a 17 day streak of no accidents which was so amazing...my goal was at least 2 weeks which she did no problem. While she was doing great at telling me she had to go, she was not wanting to do any of it herself. For a while she was all about doing it herself but recently it's been about mommy doing it all, including carrying her to the bathroom. So, the reason for the streak ending and the accident happening was that Mommy said no, I wouldn't carry her to the bathroom, she had to do it herself and she didn't! So, now that our big streak is over we're focusing more on Jordyn doing it herself, to get her back to where she used to be, and at the same time keep her dry!

Finally, Landyn is increasing her mobileness in leaps and bounds. She climbed 4 stairs the other day and I just couldn't believe it. Almost every time we get her out of bed now she's standing up and yelling, waiting for us to come. She climbs on and over everything: me, the table, Jordyn's stool, her crib and everything else she can get her hands on. I can't believe how fast she is growing. She also loves to hold my fingers and walk across the room, something she does really well. I think she'll be walking before Jordyn was at 10 mos but I guess we'll wait and see.

So those are the new things going on. Stay posted for more things going on!

Updates

I know it's been absolutely forever since the last post but thankfully in this last month and a half we've been able to see a lot of you in person! We're now done with vacations for a while so I guess I need to get back on the ball of keeping this updated. So be prepared, this is going to be a long one.

First of all, me. I finally graduate on August 14, my last day of undergrad classes. I've already been accepted for graduation even though my last two classes aren't complete so as long as I don't fail them I'm good! I'm so excited to finally be done with this after taking it so slowly since Jordyn's been born. Of course, crazy me, I'm not really stopping but rather moving on to my masters which starts August 24. I've decided to get my masters in education since I ended up dropping it from my undergrad due to the courseload and having Jordyn. I figured since we don't have a baby on the way and I can go for free I might as well take advantage of the time and opportunity and get started. There's a lot of unknowns with this such as what I will do when the student teaching semester comes around (15 weeks of teaching, who would watch the girls?) but I'm excited to get it started and hopefully finished a lot faster than my undergrad.

There's not much to tell about Wayne at the moment. He will be continuing school again in the fall and we recently found out my brother Aaron got accepted to work at Liberty and will be working right alongside Wayne! I'm sure that'll be enjoyable for both of them.

Jordyn is growing into her own and driving us both crazy. There are so many great and horrible things about her growing up and I'm not enjoying learning them all. She is completely potty trained and rarely has accidents anymore. I can let her wander on the playground and when she has to go she jumps off and comes running to me! Not to say sometimes it's a fight when she really doesn't want to stop what she's doing but most of the time, even during tv, she's great at letting me know and doing it herself! She has become very independent and very bossy. My mom used to tell me she hoped I had a child like myself so I could understand and sadly, I think we did! She loves to give step-by-step directions as to what to do, when and how. She thinks she rules the house! You're not allowed to go down the stairs until she's completely at the bottom. You're not allowed to help her into her high chair or onto the potty seat or she throws a fit and has to start all over again. Every toy is hers and she doesn't need to share it. We are having a lot of battles that hopefully will payoff soon. Not to paint a bad picture though, she can also be so wonderful. She has recently started calling herself "mommy's cudldlebug" and constantly wants to hug me and sit in my lap. I often find Landyn surrounded by tons of toys that Jordyn has brought to her. She is always wanting to kiss and say "I love you." Her new favorite thing is to call Daddy on the phone, say what she has to say, and then hang up, without even a warning. I know most of the time wayne can't understand without translation but it doens't matter becuase she doesn't give him a chance to respond! She loves to comfort Landyn when she cries, to hug her and kiss her, to share her toys (sometimes) and help her with getting what she needs. She is growing up wonderfully and her vocabulary is getting bigger every day. She loves to play the piano loudly and yell "fortisimo" and then play softly and say "pianissimo" I'm trying to just be patient and enjoy every minute I have with her at this stage but if anyone wants to give me a break and come babysit you're more than welcome!

Landyn is growing in leaps and bounds and she looks more and more like Jordyn every day. She is now crawling on her knees about 50% of the time. Army crawl is still faster so she often resorts to that when she can't get where she's going fast enough. She is pulling herself up on all kinds of things mostly just up to her knees but a few times on to her feet so we will be lowering the crib soon! She is eating a lot of different foods now and pretty much hates all vegetables. I know they say try things 10 times so I keep feeding them to her but she hates just as much the next time. With Jordyn, she always loved eating everything so I'm a little flabbergasted as to what to do with her! Landyn loves to explore and cannot be still even for a minute. She doesn't like to cuddle or sit in laps because she always needs to be going and going. She's going through some seperation anxiety, something else I didn't experience with Jordyn, and thats been difficult during church and things but I'm sure we'll get over this hurdle soon. She loves to follow Jordyn around the room which is just too cute to watch and drives Jordyn crazy. Landyn is beginning to develop her own personality as well and is starting to yell when she doesn't get her way. If I don't hold her when she's at my feet she screams, or if I'm not feeding her fast enough she screams! She is also starting to defend herself with Jordyn, not releasing toys that Jordyn tries to take away and yelling at Jordyn when things are taken away from her. It's made life interesting, the two of them but I'm loving almost every minute of it and still wouldn't change even the worst days for anything else!

Growing Up

So much has been going on in the Yates household recently. We just got back from a week in Maine but I'll blog about that and put up pictures later. I haven't put them on the computer yet! The semester finally ended and Wayne and I were both so glad. Of course, I started my summer classes the very next week so I didn't really get much reprieve but they have been going really well. A lot less time consuming than I thought which is great and I can work on it just at night, after the girls are in bed. Jordyn is growing up so quickly. She talks so much I can't even believe it. Her favorite and really only TV show is Little Einsteins and she is learning so many words and fun things from that. Her two favorite words are "migration" and "oklahoma". A cute story though is that she told me yesterday that her belly was hurting and when I asked her how it felt her response was "it feels booby-trapped Mommy", another word from Einsteins! Last week we had a big milestone; after potty training for two months she had 10 days with no accidents! I couldn't believe it and was very excited. Of course we made a big deal about it and she got a new book to celebrate! She has just started the why phase but she usually doesn't just say why. It's more like "why you doing that mommy?" she wants to know everything that is going on. She has been so helpful with Landyn recently, even more so than usually which is so wonderful to see. She loves to hug and kiss her and bring her toys. We're still working on sharing but I'm starting to see improvement which is really encouraging. She really is growing into such a sweet girls who loves to hug and kiss everyone that comes over, who hugs her babies and reads books to Landyn. One of her favorite phrases is "I love this Mommy" and has been saying that about many things. I could go on and on about her but I wont. I'm just so proud of the pretty little girl she's becoming. Of course we have our frusterating moments, and sometimes entire days but she is such a great girl and we love her so much!

Landyn is growing in leaps and bounds too! She will be 6 months tomorrow and I can't believe the changes just in the last week and a half. In the last week and a half she has cut her first tooth, started sitting up, begun crawling and finally started eating other baby food besides cereal (twice a day instead of once). I think she's hitting a growth spurt and she's become a lot more hungry recently. She is still so mild mannered and patient with everyone, it's wonderful. She loves to play with Jordyn and follows her all around the room. Before yesterday she wasn't crawling but she could roll and spin anywhere just to make sure she had Jordyn in her line of sight. Her tooth is coming through really well and while we had a few rough weeks waiting for it to break the skin she still did so well. She just started crawling yesterday and I got it on video today so hopefully I'll post it soon. It's very amusing and really hard to explain how she does it. Of course, she wants to chase Jordyn's crayons which doesn't make Jordyn very happy because as Jordyn says and Mommy usually says too, "she's very very little for crayons." She's also begun sitting up. It's only about 15 seconds at a time but she's getting better every day and I've been helping her practice! She'll be sitting up for minutes before we know it.

I just can't believe how much my girls are growing up. It's hard sometimes knowing that we might not ever hear that word said wrong again or know she won't need us to pick her up and carry her to her toys because she'll be getting them on her own, I'm just trying to memorize all the little day to day things before they're gone forever! Depsite the nostalgia I'm so loving all the changes and being able to see the girls they are becoming. It's amazing how much more I love them every day. Being a mom of two is great and we're really falling into a great routine. Having them both in bed by 9:30 isn't too bad either. We had a great time seeing some of you this past week and look forward to seeing a lot more of you this next month for our next vacation. We love you all!

Final Stretch

It's the final stretches for classes and I'm so glad. Wayne and I are exhausted all the time it seems! But two more weeks for both of us and it's finally over, until August for Wayne and only two weeks for me. Then I start summer classes so I can graduate by the end of the summer. Math tutoring work has been picking up too, making life a little more busy but it's been great. We've recently had 90 degree weather and so we've been swimming and spending a lot of time outside. We have almost finished the back patio giving the girls a place to place with two swings, a sandbox, a pool and lots of toys! We just added some deck furniture to our outside deck and recently plants to the front garden. It's been really nice and we've been enjoying being outside every day for almost a week. It's nice to have those outside play places when it's too hot or mommy is too tired to walk to the park! It's been such a long time since updating, to much to go over but both girls are doing great. Jordyn is thinning out again do to all the outside activity and talking so much. She can put such huge sentences together. The other day after hurting her knee she told me "Mommy need bandaid. Make feel better." I couldn't believe she had just said all of that. Landyn is growing in leaps and bounds too. She can prop herself sitting for a few seconds at a time. She's always trying to sit up and rolling like crazy. She can roll both ways now and spin all around too. When you put her on the floor you never know where she'll end up. Well, thats the short version of the update. Hopefully I'll keep up on it from now on but chances are I'll fall behind again. Enjoy the pictures. I know there aren't tons but check out my facebook for a lot more! We love you all.

So here's the long awaited video. There's a lot of stuff in it. Landyn talking and rolling. Jordyn tells her colors and no, we didn't practice ahead of time. She really does just know them! A glimpse of what it's like at breakfast and a fun song Jordyn learned with Grandma on spring break. There's some more fun things too like playing in the mirror and just being silly. Hope you enjoy!

New Changes

To those of you who check our blog regularly, sorry about how long it's taken to get a new post up. Those of you with kids know how difficult it is to find time for anything, and just add two parents in school on top of that and it's almost impossible to do anything else besides school and kid things. So, I know it's been long and I apologize. Because of that it's going to make this blog full of information to fill you all in.Let's start with this weekend. It has been a whirlwind with a lot of new changes in our lives. Landyn started rolling over! Since she did it about 6 times in a row we were able to catch it on camera. Jordyn was very excited as well because she has been showing Landyn how to roll and trying to "help" her roll over for some time now. We couldn't believe she was doing it and she seemed very happy about it! Landyn also started cereal this weekend. I've been feeling like a lot of times after eating she's still hungry so what better way to fill her up than cereal. Again, Jordyn has been very excited and wanting to help feed Landyn. She also keeps saying she wants a bite but as soon as it's about to touch her mouth she changes her mind. The biggest change this weekend happened when we decided to potty train Jordyn. She has been very interested in the potty for a couple of weeks and been asking to go so we decided now was as good a time as any. We used a method called potty training in 3 days, which I highly recommend. By day 2 Jordyn had only one accident and day 3 brought on no accidents along with waking up dry from a 10-hour sleep! Today, day 5, has been a more trying day as the first half of the morning she decided she didn't want to go on the potty and had two accidents but now we are back on top of it and she's excited again about going and getting an M&M for a reward. I know there will still be accidents and frusterating moments with this but I'm so glad to be over the hurdle of potty training.

In other areas of our lives, Jordyn, Landyn and I were able to go home to NY for spring break. We were gone 8 days and we missed Wayne like crazy but really had a fun time. We all started off sick and so the first few days were a little rough and they convinced my brother he never wants to have kids! It's easy to convince someone of that when you have two screaming girls climbing in your lap and having nothing make them happy! But after the first few days they both just jumped into life there and it was a lot of fun. It was Landyn's first trip so I enjoyed showing her off to all of our family. Having all my siblings there as well as my parents was great too because it gave me some time to go out to lunch with friends, take a nap one day and do some shopping without having to carry anyone around the store! We were sad to go and Jordyn is still asking when Grandma and Grandpa will come!

Wayne is now in the middle of two online classes that are taking up a lot of his time. He's so great about it though. Most of the time he won't even start his work until the girls are in bed, forcing him to stay up late but he does it to spend time with them and help give me a break and for that I am always thankful! I am also in the thick of two classes with tons of work. Pretty much all my free time is taken up studying and I am just trying to focus on the end and stay as positive as I can. For those of you who know me, you know how difficult that is!

We are loving our life and really enjoying our girls. Landyn is really developing a personality and is awake and alert a lot more. Jordyn has really been enjoying playing with her now that she can hold toys and smile as well as sit-up (when propped). It is really fun to see the two of them interact together. With the warmer weather, we have had some days in the 70's we have been able to go to the park a few times and that is always great too, to have a change in scenery. We are really looking forward to May, the end of school and the start of two one-week vacation trips where hopefully we will be able to see a lot of you! We miss you all and thanks for keeping up on us. I'll be posting a video hopefully later tonight or tomorrow. I'm still working on it!

It's Been a While

Hey everyone. I know I haven't posted in a while...life has been busy, but I thought I would post a quick update. Classes are going well for me but they're keeping me busy with studying and homework. Wayne has been quite busy at work with a lot of huge projects and his classes start next week so please keep us in your prayers as we are flying through this semester! The girls have their check-ups on Monday so then we'll be able to let you know how they really are growing. Landyn has been starting to sleep through the night which is great! This past week has been a whilrwind. She slept through the night Sunday and Monday but she was very restless and while she didn't cry to eat she wasn't all that happy so I gave up and fed her Tuesday night when she woke up. Then Wednesday night she went to bed at 10 and wasn't up to eat again until 7! She did that again last night too so I think this might officially be the new schedule which makes me very happy. I've still been waking up to check on her since my body is on that schedule but I'm sure I'll soon be sleeping through the night again.

Jordyn has been doing well too. She's definitely getting very dependent and opinionated which can be very frusterating but at the same time she can be the sweetest thing. She is saying more and more new words and growing in leaps and bounds. She's getting very good at counting and can now recognize some of her numbers as well thanks to her number puzzle from Uncle Kirk and Aunt Jen. She's been obsessed with coloring and wants to do it all the time. Her coloring books are filled with scribbles. Well, thats all for now but I'll try and keep up with this better in the future.

Updates

Life has been going well in the Yates home and we are moving into a comfortable and easy routine. Landyn eats 5-6 times a day, giving Jordyn and I a lot of time to spend, just the two of us. Some mornings we just hang out while other times we do special things such as crafts or a little t.v. I've ventured out a few more times with both girls to both the grocery store and the library. Both trips went really smoothly so I think we'll keep going out from time to time. Jordyn has really adjusted now to Landyn and rarely ever gets jealous or angry with her. She does feel she needs to be included and be doing whatever Landyn is doing as you can tell from the picture above. In short, our life has been going very smoothly and most days are stress free. I'm loving being a mom of two!

I've also posted a cute little video of the two girls. Jordyn counts! She doesn't know 7 or 9 but she knows all the rest. Then just some cute video of the two girls spending time together. They just get along so well and this video shows it. Enjoy!

Landyn's Update

Landyn is now a month old and we really can't believe it. Sometimes it seems like we had her just yesterday while other times it seems as though she's always been a part of our lives. She is such a wonderful girl, so full of interest at the things around her. We definitely see both Wayne's and my temperament in her. She is often so laid back and happy to just be, but when she gets angry she gets so unbelievable angry and screams at the top of her lungs! We'll let you guess whose temerapment is whose!

She is very patient with Jordyn and doesn't often get upset. Jordyn tends to trip on her or accidentally drop toys on her. Once she covered her face with a blanket, something I quickly put a stop to. In all that Landyn just seems to take it in stride and not really seem to mind it. She doesn't have a doctor's appt. this month so we can't tell you her exact weight and height but I know she is definitely growing as some of her clothes are now getting too short and too tight!

Really the only things Landyn does are eat and sleep and both she does well. She eats only 5-6 times a day, only once in the middle of the night, and loves to sleep. We've been having to keep her awake for a while after eating otherwise, she'll sleep all day and come night time she'll be ready to play. Thankfully, we've been nipping that in the bud.

She has a very strong neck and when put on her belly or held over our shoulder, loves to look around and see everything she can. Her favorite expression is a frown but she also likes to just be wide-eyed and take everything in. She is a complete pacifier baby and is alreayd dependent on it, just like Jordyn was. The frusterating thing is that she can't keep it in her mouth and so almost every time it falls out, she cries. Hopefully that stage will be over soon becuase we're both tired of popping it back in a million times and also tired of just leaving it out and listening to her scream! We can't seem to wean her off of it though.

She really is a great baby and we are so thankful for the added craziness, sweetness and cuddles that she's brought into our lives. We couldn't imagine life without her and are excited about how she will continue to grow!

Jordyn's Update

Jordyn is growing in leaps and bounds every day it seems. She is now 16 months old and we just can't believe all the things she's doing. She loves to eat and can do much of it by herself. While that sometimes drives me crazy because I have to treat almost all her clothes for stains and we definitely do more laundry, it is so fun to watch her work her magic with a fork and spoon. And even if you do want to help, she's very strong-willed and often refuses to eat it unless she's doing it herself!

She is also talking all the time. She says new things every day and we just can't believe it. She's great at saying Landyn's name, even though she can't say her own very well, and loves to say it often. Imitating is something that Jordyn does best and will copy almost any word we say, which is fun and scary. We definitely have to watch everything we say! Some words she says even though they aren't really true. She loves to tell me that her clothes are all to tight and proceeds to try and pull them off. She also thinks all her food is hot and will tell me that, and then not eat it until I blow on it, even sandwiches! But overall her vocabulary development has been really enjoyable.

Other things she loves to do is read books. Thats always been one of her favorite things but now she will actually say words and point at things, all on her own. It's really fun to just sit and watch her. She also has started learning to jump and tip-toe and will just run around the house on her tip-toes yelling "tip-toe, tip-toe". It's very cute.

Lastly, her adjustment to Landyn has been great. She loves her sister very much and doesn't usually mind her. She used to be afraid of the crying but has now come so used to it she'll just talk louder over Landyn's cries. She enjoys helping pull out the wipes for me when I'm changing Landyn and putting her paci in. She'll cover her up in a blanket and give her kisses without even being prompted. I'm so thankful for how well they get along!

I think thats it for now in the area of Jordyn but I'm sure in two weeks from now she'll be a totally different girl, on to bigger and better things!

Christmas

We had a great Christmas season this year and while it was totally different than any other Christmas we've had it was still very memorable. Since Landyn was still small and Wayne had used most of the rest of his vacation days when she was born we opted not to go anywhere for Christmas. This was my first Christmas not spent with my family and Wayne's first Christmas season not visiting his family. While it was a little difficult for us at first we still had a fun time.Christmas Eve was spent opening the gifts from eachother. Jordyn didn't get tons of gifts from us but even still, it was hard to get her to focus on opening them. She would open one and just want to play, oblivious to all the others still to open. On Christmas morning we had a big breakfast and opened the presents from other family members that had been sent to us. That took over an hour just because Jordyn was so slow! We had a lot of fun though and did a lot of playing.My parents and sister were able to come visit a few days after Christmas and of course brought more presents! For Jordyn it was the year of the kitchen stuff. She got a kitchen set, play food, bowls and measuring cups and a chefs hat and apron. She looks very cute and loves to play in the hat especially. Poor Landyn just got stuck with clothes (every childs favorite present) but we loved them all and it has been very fun putting her in all her new things and not just hand-me-downs from Jordyn. It was a great Christmas season and while I missed my family and all the activity that usually takes place I just couldn't stop thinking that I didn't mind to much. I have a beautiful family that I got to spend the holidays with and we got to make fun memories together, just the four of us. Happy Holidays Everyone!